Youngstown State University offers its presidency to Jim Tressel

As a football coach, Jim Tressel rarely lost two in a row. That now holds true in his career as a university administrator.Youngstown State University on Friday, May 9, announced it has offered the position of president to Tressel, currently the executive vice president of student success at the University of Akron. The announcement came one day after the University of Akron — where Tressel also was a candidate for the presidency — instead named University of Toledo provost Scott L. Scarborough to the job.The university said trustees have authorized board chair Sudershan Garg and vice chair John Jakubek to negotiate and execute an employment contract with Tressel. Garg “emphasized that the appointment is not final until contract terms can be reached,” according to a Youngstown State news release.Tressel, former head football coach at Youngstown State as well as Ohio State University, would become YSU's ninth president.The presidency now is held on an interim basis by Ikram Khawaja, the university's provost and vice president for academic affairs. Khawaja took over for Randy Dunn, who held the post for just seven months before leaving for the top job at Southern Illinois University. Dunn left the university at the end of March. The Youngstown Vindicatorreported that in the wake of Dunn's in-and-out tenure, Youngstown State trustees “are considering implementing a penalty for a president who leaves midterm without cause.”Youngstown State last week interviewed Tressel and two other finalists — Mary Cullinan, president of Southern Oregon University, and Gary L. Miller, chancellor of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington — for the president's position. The board met in closed, executive session Friday morning and then convened publicly to vote to offer Tressel the position.“After fully examining each and every candidate and reviewing the input from hundreds of individuals across the campus and the community, the board of trustees believes Mr. Tressel is the right individual at the right time to lead Youngstown State University,” Garg said in a statement. “Mr. Tressel has the personality and leadership skills, in addition to widespread community support, to dramatically raise YSU's profile and prominence across Ohio and the nation.”Tressel, a Northeast Ohio native who graduated from Berea High School in 1971, became vice president for Strategic Engagement at the University of Akron in May 2012 and was promoted to executive vice president for Student Success in December 2013.As head football coach at Youngstown State from 1986 to 2000, Tressel's teams won four Division I-AA national championships. He then went on to coach at Ohio State from 2001 and 2010, where his teams won the national championship in 2002 and Big Ten championships in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.Tressel earned a bachelor's degree in education from Baldwin-Wallace College in 1975 and a master's degree in education from the University of Akron in 1977. He has published two books: “The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life” (2008) and “Life Promises for Success” (2011). Unlike most university presidents, he does not hold a Ph.D. or an Ed.D. His full bio is here.